Help with 2-man Handcart

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

A friend and I have been looking at this picture for weeks, and cannot determine how the legs attach to the platform.

The image was taken in Yorktown outside of Cornwalis's Cave 1862 I believe. The image is in the Library of Congress Collection, but I do not recall the Accessions No.

Anyone have any ideas about the leg attachment?

Thanks,

Paul

[Hank Trent]

Re: Help with 2-man Handcart

Tenon up into a mortice in the horizontal rail? Looks like there might be a single peg or nail in the center of the tenon to keep the legs from dropping out when it was lifted.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Help with 2-man Handcart

Or a half-lap joint, maybe? Each piece half-notched, and nested together, with the pegs or nails securing them?

[Will Eichler]

Re: Help with 2-man Handcart

Elizabeth,

I don't think half lap in this case. If you look at the upstage right leg, you can just see the top of the leg where it attaches to the main cross piece. It certainly terminated there and doesn't extend up from there.

the only exception is if both halflaps existed on the upstage side of this piece, which seems unlikely to me because one would be viewable from the inside and one from the outside.

Just my thoughts. Very neat image.

Best regards to all,

Will Eichler

[C.R. Henderson]

Re: Help with 2-man Handcart

Paul,
the joint you are looking at is, indeed, a mortise and tenon and perhaps is a through tenon due to the placement of the nail into the handle section. How it works: the tenon slips onto a mortise which is the same size as the tenon. The nail (if you look closely at the image there is what appears to be a nail hole where the mortise and tenon intersect) holds the joint together and helps the presumably tight joint from succumbing to gravity's effects whilst in use. (The reason for using the nail in the first place is probably to it being a field made piece and having a lack of glue.) The way it is held together is the beauty of this thing. The stretchers between the leg/handle assemblies have been round tenoned through as well and are most likely being held fast by wedges in kerf cuts in said tenons (much like the legs on Windsor chairs and ax heads/handles.) You can see what looks like a wedge in the showing leg on the left which is oriented across the grain of the leg to prevent splitting the leg. The top is actually two layers thick. The foundation layer is planking that is most likely nailed in place directly into the handles and that being covered by the second layer which serves two purposes; first, it keeps whatever you have on there from sliding/rolling off to easily and second, to keep the nails from the first layer from working themselves out (as period cut nails are known to do from time to time.) I hope this helps and I have attached a rather crude paint file that I hope will help my explanation.

[Greg Barnett]

Re: Help with 2-man Handcart

Nice illustration, Chris. That is extremely helpful.
Regards

[Rev]

Re: Help with 2-man Handcart

While it is impossible to tell from this picture I was commissioned to recreate a piece similar to this located in a museum. The tenons on it were not standard. They were shouldered only on the wide planes of the legs. I assume this was probably to save time in the field.

BTW, if you do not have to make the legs in this manner I'd advise against it. A full shouldered tenon offers greater strength against flex on all planes.